Carpet on underfloor heating?

emerosc

Just wondering if anyone can tell me is it ok to use felt back carpet on underfloor heating? I know tiles and wooden floors are much better, but the room has a vaulted ceiling and echo wise, it needs carpet. We used a really good quality canvas backed carpet and underlay on our bedroom and it is disasterous, wont let the heat up at all, even though we paid a fortune for it as it was sold as suitable for underfloor heating. It would seem that not using underlay would make it easier for the heat to get through, and the place we are buying the carpet from says felt back is fine to go straight down on the floor, but just wondered if this is true? Any advice would be appreciated.

antoinolachtnai

I don't know for sure, but I would be pretty pessimistic. These carpets are designed to make the room feel warm underfoot.

If the acoustics are your only issue, then you really need some sort of absorber to go on the wall or ceiling, maybe http://www.soundservice.co.uk/soundabsorber_ceilings.html

You could also carpet a wall. Sounds ridiculous, but every so often you will see it done to quieten down noisy rooms in restaurants and public areas.

heinbloed

One has to run the flow temperature of the UFH higher.
If a sales person says a carpet is suitable for UFH he or she means that it - the carpet and it's guarantee - will survive. For an exact calculation concerning the extra thermal energy demand (from the UFH) contact the UFH designer.
Or an energy advisor, heating engineer, civil engineer.

Mike2006

I have carpets up[stairs in my house with UFH and it operates just fine.

I used the UFH approved underlay which the carpet shop supplied to me as well.
The response timwe of the system is not noticeably different to the rooms with timber floor in them.

Tiles are defo the best with the UFH but not always possible/practical.

Mike.

heinbloed

Hi Mike 2006!

How far is the thermal conductivity decreased with the carpet installed?

Or to put the question in plain words: how much have the flow and return temperatures to be increased to achieve the desired room temperature comparing the situation 'floor without carpet' and 'floor with carpet' ?

The lower the temperature in the UFH distribution the lower the primary energy demand, the lower the fuel bill....

Thanks.

Mike2006

I have the carpets and timber floors on the same floor (upstairs).
master bedroom - carpet and kids bedrooms - timber floors so the mixing valve is set to the same temp for both cases (38 DegC).

I have no issues at all with it. The response time is fine. I can't give you a time value or anything. I just go by the 'feel' of the room more than by what should happen in theory.

The house was built to a decent standard (BER - A2) so I suppose the heat retention is good as well which helps matters.

But as a general point, I would not have any problems with using carpet with UFH again. It is working fine for me.

Mike.

heinbloed

Thanks, Mike2006!